368 



NATURE 



[January io, 191 8 



to the invaluable collections in the museums and in 

 the cessation of much scientific work which is de- 

 nendent upon such collections. That such action, m 

 fhe opinion of this council, could not fail to bring dis- 

 credit upon our nation in the eyes of all civilised 



^^On January 7 it was resolved: That the Classical 

 Association appeals to the Government against the 

 proposed conversion of the buildings of the British 

 Museum into a seat of combatant activity, both be- 

 cause of the inevitable injury that would be caused 

 by removal to a multitude of objects of unique his- 

 torical value, and because the change would legitimate 

 and incite attacks from the air upon a library contain- 

 ing many thousands of irreplaceable books and MSS. 

 which constitute a great part of the inheritance of the 

 civilised world. Their safe-keeping is a trust for 

 humanity imposed by history upon this country, and 

 the association regards the present proposal as a 

 declension from the high ideals with which the country 

 and the Empire entered on the war. 



Similar resolutions have been passed by the British 

 Archeeological Association, the annual Conference of 

 Educational Associations, the Royal Society of Anti- 

 quaries of Ireland, the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal 

 Numismatic Society, the Cambridge Antiquarian 

 Society, and many other representative bodies. 



SANDS FOR GLASS MANUFACTURE.^ 



THE preface to this memoir refers to the great 

 advantage which the glass industry of this 

 country is deriving from the prescient policy of 

 the Department of Optical Munitions and Glass- 

 ware Supply of the Ministry of Munitions ; and the 

 memoir itself is an example of the department's 

 effoits to place the industry in a sound position. 

 A knowledge of the home resources of raw mate- 

 rials is of prime importance to the glass industry, 

 and the exhaustive survey made by the author has 

 enabled him to place on record for the first time 

 valuable information as to the resources of suitable 

 sands on which the glass manufacturer can rely. 

 In pre-war days large quantities of excellent sand 

 were imported from Belgium and France, and 

 their cheapness was mainly due to their transport 

 as ballast in coal-boats. Economic conditions may 

 prevent the utilisation of many of the occurrences 

 of sands and rocks to which the memoir refers, but 

 much will depend on the provision of cheap trans- 

 port by the adequate development of our canal 

 systems. This is well shown by the sketch-map 

 marking the locations of the chief resources of 

 glass sands in relation to the glass-making areas. 

 A glass sand should be of uniform grain size, 

 and the most desirable sands are those containing 

 a high proportion of grains from 0*25 to 0*5 mm. 

 in diameter. The presence of g-rains smaller than 

 o'l mm. causes the formation of "seed," which is 

 difficult to remove in the "fining " process. An 

 even grade is also an important factor in securing 

 homogeneity, and it is doubtful if stirring- can com- 

 •pletely eliminate heterogeneity caused by the use 

 of badly graded, unevenly melting- sands. An im- 

 portant conclusion to be drawn from the author's 

 investigations is that although we have not in this 



1 "A Supplementary Memoir on British Resources of Sands and Rocks 

 used in Glass Manufacture, with Notes on certain Refractory Materials." 

 By Prof. G. H. Boswell and others. Pp. 92. (London : Longmans and 



Co., 1917.) Price 3J. net. 



NO. 2515, VOL. 



100] 



country any deposit equal in quality, uniformity^ 

 and extent to that at Fontainebleau, we have 

 ample supplies of sands suitable for all ordinary 

 glass-making purposes. Carefully selected sands 

 from the soft white quartzites of Muckish Moun- 

 tain contain under o-oi per cent, of iron oxide, and 

 this source is of great importance, as, despite its 

 inaccessibility, it is likely to provide a home supply 

 of the small quantities of sand required for the 

 manufacture of optical glass. Generally speaking, 

 although crushed rocks are largely used in the 

 American glass industry, they cannot for econo- 

 mic reasons be regarded as an immediate source 

 of supply of glass sands in this country. 



.Sand-pit owners are now giving greater atten- 

 tion to the cleansing and grading of sand by wash- 

 ing, and the improvement which can be effected in 

 the quality of a sand is indicated in the tables given 

 on p. 64 of the memoir. It would have been of 

 interest if quantitative information as to the yield of 

 washed sand could have been added to these tables. 

 The washers at present in use are satisfactory for 

 comparatively coarse sands of the Leighton Buz- 

 zard type, but are much less efficient for finer- 

 grained sands, such as those of Lynn and Ayles- 

 bury. Provided that a plentiful supply of water 

 is available, there should be no great difficulty in 

 designing an efficient washer for fine-grained 

 sands, and co-operation between the glass manu- 

 facturer and the sand-pit owner is desirable if ade- 

 quate washing plant is to be installed. Sands low 

 in iron will he preferably graded by drying and 

 sieving, instead of .washing, so as to retain the 

 alumina-rich coating which is adherent to the 

 quartz grains. Alumina is valuable in a glass, as 

 not only does it reduce the tendency of the molten 

 glass to devitrify, but it also increases the tough- 

 ness of the glass and enables the batch to be 

 cheapened by increasing the proportions of sand 

 and lime at the expense of the alkali. Felspar is 

 being increasingly used as a source of alumina in 

 a glass batch, and the author's survey of the re- 

 sources of suitable rocks of low iron content is of 

 value as an indication of the possibility of sub- 

 stituting the home for the imported material. 



The uses of sand for its refractory properties 

 are referred to only briefly, and the further memoir 

 on our home resources of refractory sands will be 

 awaited with interest. 



Prof. Boswell has rendered a distinct service to 

 the glass industry by this rapid completion of his 

 survey. 



ORGANISATION FOR INDUSTRIAL 

 EXPANSION IN SOUTH AFRICA. 

 TN an article on "The Co-ordination of Re- 

 ■*- search " which appeared in Nature of Decem- 

 ber 6 mention was made incidentally of the issue 

 of the South African Journal of Industries. Copies 

 of the first number of this journal have now 

 reached this country. Before alluding to the 

 scope of the new journal it should be explained 

 that the Scientific and Technical Committee ap- 

 pointed by the Department of Mines and Indus- 

 tries of the Union of South Africa has for its prin- 



